3-A Championship, No. 15 College Park vs No. 5 Arroyo

Well I’m pretty sure the blogging has topped 2500 words today, so hopefully the tens of thousands of you refreshing at home and those following all around the world on Armed Forces Internet were satisfied. Congrats to College Park and Arroyo for great seasons.

Top 7, Arroyo – Johnson – Double to RC. Second hit of the game for Arroyo. Bratton – Ball goes to the backstop, Johnson moves to third. Passed ball and Arroyo is on the board. It’s 2-1 CP. Coming in to pitch for CP is Harmen Sidhu. That snaps the 26-inning scoreless streak by the CP pitching staff. Bratton K’s and CP is two outs away. Jack – Sidhu has the slowest windup this side of Hideo Nomo. Caught looking. Strike 3. Grucza – ball 1. fouled away, 1-1. 1-2.
4,670 announced attendance. We’re not sure how many of the season ticket holders and luxury box holders didn’t show. Strike 3. game over. College Park is your 2008 NCS 3-A CHAMPIONS

Top 6, Arroyo – Anderson – Out at first on a close play 6-3. Petros (1-for-2) – This just in from Jimmy Durkin “College Park has good pitching.” Thank you for that in-depth analysis, Jimmy. Petros caught looking. Matheny – Strike out. College Park 2, Arroyo 0. Not looking good for the Dons.

Bottom 5, CP – Goonan – Single in the gap in RC. That’s all for MacHado as Greg Boyson comes in to pitch. MacHado walked two batters, both came around to score, ouch. Ornellas – good contact, but a nice play by Petros in CF to get the out. Goonan steals second. Holcomb – F8. Blallock pinch hitting for Gardner – Wild pitch, runner on third now. Walk. Nuyten – Squeeze play, missed, and he’s out at the plate. Which makes two catcher unassisted caught stealing plays in this game. College Park 2, Arroyo 0

Top 4, Arroyo – Petros – Liner up the middle gives Arroyo its first base runner and hit of the game. Matheny – out. Johnson – Called strike three, but Petros steals second without a throw. Then, with no one covering third he jets for third and gets there safely. Heads up play by Petros, heads down play by CP and Coleman goes out to the mound to talk about it. Bratton – HBP. Jack – Deep fly ball, but its tracked down. College Park 1, Arroyo 0

Bottom 3, CP – Goonan – He was up when Fiammengo caught stealing home and flies out to lead off the third. Ornellas – Pop up to Grucza is foul terrioty. 2 outs. Holcomb – Hit by the first pitch. Gardner – CP has Arroyo thinking now, second pitch out, this time the runner wasn’t going. A little liner back up the box is knocked down by MacHado, he makes the throw to first, inning over. College Park 1, Arroyo 0

Bottom 2, CP – Vink – Walks for our first base runner of the game Derr – High fly ball to center, 1 away Smith – Another fly ball to CF sends him to the bench. Fiammengo – A pitch out is called perfectly, the the throw to second sails high and into center field. Vink doesn’t move to third, but he’s now in scoring position. Double down the left field line scores Vink and CP has the first lead, 1-0. Goonan – On the first pitch, Fiammengo steals third. That is College Park baseball right there. He tried to steal home, but was tagged out easily at the plate. College Park 1, Arroyo 0

Top 2, Arroyo – I was there to see College Park upset Foothill in the first round. In that game, Foothill’s first batter of the game scored. The Falcons haven’t given up a run since. 21 innings without a run. Bratton – First of all, Bratton may be the biggest person in the stadium tonight, but he grounds out to short. Jack – Goonan gets him swinging, 2 outs. Grucza – Pop up to third. 22 scoreless for the Falcons. Arroyo 0, College Park 0

Bottom 1, CP – Holcomb – Grounder to second, 1 out. Gardner – A rare strikeout for MacHado (looking) gets Gardner and up comes Nuyten – Hits a ball foul in left field, but Hunter crashes into the wall. For some reason the CP fans cheer after they see him lying there. Hunter is going to come out of the game and Luke Stone is warming up to come in, in his stead. Well, maybe he is not coming in, this delay is well over 10 minutes now. Hunter is going back out there now, looks like he is wearing wrap around his wrist. Naturally, the first pitch is a fly ball to hunt and we’re finally out of the first inning. Arroyo 0, College Park 0

Top 1, Arroyo – Petros – Weak grounder on a check swing back to Goonan, 1 away. Matheny – First pitch grounder to second, 2 outs. Johnson – Works the count full and thought he got walked, but after taking a couple steps out of the box, he gets rung out. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors. Arroyo 0, College Park 0

Alright, the main event is here and there is a decent crowd on hand.

The Star Spangled Banner was not the Grace Leer version, kind of disappointing.